Accessory device texting enhancements

ABSTRACT

Methods and devices for a wireless accessory device (AD) comprising a cellular radio to communicate with a cellular network using the cellular radio. The wireless AD establishes a texting session with a network entity through the cellular network and using the cellular radio. The wireless AD initiates a countdown timer in response to establishing the texting session. The wireless AD determines that a companion device to the wireless AD is reachable by the wireless AD. The wireless AD refrains from pairing with the companion device until the countdown timer expires in response to determining that the companion device is reachable by the wireless device. After expiration of the countdown timer, if the companion device is still reachable by the wireless AD, the wireless AD may pair with the companion device and/or power down its cellular radio.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationNo. 62/855,831, titled “Accessory Device Texting Enhancements” and filedon May 31, 2019, which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety, as though fully and completely set forth herein.

FIELD

The present application relates to wireless communication, includingproviding improved text communication capabilities for a small formfactor device, such as a smart phone or wearable device (e.g., a smartwatch).

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Wireless communication systems are rapidly growing in usage. Further,wireless communication technology has evolved from voice-onlycommunications to also include the transmission of data, such asInternet and multimedia content.

Mobile electronic devices may take the form of smart phones or tablets,which users often carry on their person or hold. Smaller form factordevices, such as smart watches, are a newer form of mobile electronicdevice. These and other devices which are designed to be worn by theuser may be referred to as wearable devices. In the past, the wirelesscommunications capabilities of wearable devices have been generallylimited; for example, some wearable devices have been capable ofcommunicating only through wired interfaces or over short-rangepoint-to-point technologies. Moreover, wearable devices typically havesmaller batteries and more limited input and output capabilities thanlarger portable devices such as smart phones and tablets. These hardwarelimitations present unique challenges to deliver a good user experiencein text messaging applications utilizing small form factor devices.Thus, improvements in the field are desirable.

SUMMARY

Embodiments are presented herein of, inter alia, a user equipment (UE)device, which may be a smart phone or a wearable device, such as a smartwatch, and associated methods for enabling the device to improvecontinuity of text messaging applications for essential services such asemergency scenarios and other important applications.

In some embodiments, a wireless accessory device (AD) such as a wearabledevice establishes a texting session with a network entity through acellular network and using a cellular radio of the wireless AD. Thewireless AD then initiates a countdown timer in response to establishingthe texting session.

In some embodiments, the wireless AD determines that a companion deviceto the wireless AD is reachable by the wireless AD. In some embodiments,the wireless AD refrains from pairing with the companion device untilthe countdown timer expires at least in part in response to determiningthat the companion device is reachable by the wireless device.

This Summary is intended to provide a brief overview of some of thesubject matter described in this document. Accordingly, it will beappreciated that the above-described features are merely examples andshould not be construed to narrow the scope or spirit of the subjectmatter described herein in any way. Other features, aspects, andadvantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparentfrom the following Detailed Description, Figures, and Claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A better understanding of the present subject matter can be obtainedwhen the following detailed description of the embodiments is consideredin conjunction with the following drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless communication system including awearable device, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example system in which a wireless accessorydevice (AD) can selectively either directly communicate with a cellularbase station or utilize the cellular capabilities of an intermediate orproxy device such as a smart phone, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example UE, e.g., a smartphone or wearable device, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a base station,according to some embodiments; and

FIG. 5 is a flowchart diagram illustrating a method for utilizing atimer by a wireless AD to delay pairing with a companion device during atexting session, according to some embodiments.

While the features described herein are susceptible to variousmodifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof areshown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described indetail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detaileddescription thereto are not intended to be limiting to the particularform disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover allmodifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spiritand scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims.

The term “configured to” is used herein to connote structure byindicating that the units/circuits/components include structure (e.g.,circuitry) that performs the task or tasks during operation. As such,the unit/circuit/component can be said to be configured to perform thetask even when the specified unit/circuit/component is not currentlyoperational (e.g., is not on). The units/circuits/components used withthe “configured to” language include hardware—for example, circuits,memory storing program instructions executable to implement theoperation, etc. Reciting that a unit/circuit/component is “configuredto” perform one or more tasks is expressly intended not to invokeinterpretation under 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) for that unit/circuit/component.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Terminology

The following is a glossary of terms used in this disclosure:

Memory Medium—Any of various types of non-transitory memory devices orstorage devices. The term “memory medium” is intended to include aninstallation medium, e.g., a CD-ROM, floppy disks, or tape device; acomputer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM,SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; a non-volatile memory such as a Flash,magnetic media, e.g., a hard drive, or optical storage; registers, orother similar types of memory elements, etc. The memory medium mayinclude other types of non-transitory memory as well or combinationsthereof. In addition, the memory medium may be located in a firstcomputer system in which the programs are executed, or may be located ina second different computer system which connects to the first computersystem over a network, such as the Internet. In the latter instance, thesecond computer system may provide program instructions to the firstcomputer for execution. The term “memory medium” may include two or morememory mediums which may reside in different locations, e.g., indifferent computer systems that are connected over a network. The memorymedium may store program instructions (e.g., embodied as computerprograms) that may be executed by one or more processors.

Carrier Medium—a memory medium as described above, as well as a physicaltransmission medium, such as a bus, network, and/or other physicaltransmission medium that conveys signals such as electrical,electromagnetic, or digital signals.

Programmable Hardware Element—includes various hardware devicesincluding multiple programmable function blocks connected via aprogrammable interconnect. Examples include FPGAs (Field ProgrammableGate Arrays), PLDs (Programmable Logic Devices), FPOAs (FieldProgrammable Object Arrays), and CPLDs (Complex PLDs). The programmablefunction blocks may range from fine grained (combinatorial logic or lookup tables) to coarse grained (arithmetic logic units or processorcores). A programmable hardware element may also be referred to as“reconfigurable logic”.

Computer System—any of various types of computing or processing systems,including a personal computer system (PC), mainframe computer system,workstation, network appliance, Internet appliance, personal digitalassistant (PDA), television system, grid computing system, or otherdevice or combinations of devices. In general, the term “computersystem” can be broadly defined to encompass any device (or combinationof devices) having at least one processor that executes instructionsfrom a memory medium.

User Equipment (UE) (or “UE Device”)—any of various types of computersystems devices which are mobile or portable and which performs wirelesscommunications. Examples of UE devices include mobile telephones orsmart phones (e.g., iPhone™, Android™-based phones), portable gamingdevices (e.g., Nintendo DS™, PlayStation Portable™, Gameboy Advance™,iPhone™), laptops, wearable devices (e.g. smart watch, smart glasses),PDAs, portable Internet devices, music players, data storage devices, orother handheld devices, etc. In general, the term “UE” or “UE device”can be broadly defined to encompass any electronic, computing, and/ortelecommunications device (or combination of devices) which is easilytransported by a user and capable of wireless communication.

Base Station—The term “Base Station” (also called “eNB”) has the fullbreadth of its ordinary meaning, and at least includes a wirelesscommunication station installed at a fixed location and used tocommunicate as part of a wireless cellular communication system.

Processing Element—refers to various elements or combinations ofelements. Processing elements include, for example, circuits such as anASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), portions or circuits ofindividual processor cores, entire processor cores, individualprocessors, programmable hardware devices such as a field programmablegate array (FPGA), and/or larger portions of systems that includemultiple processors.

Automatically—refers to an action or operation performed by a computersystem (e.g., software executed by the computer system) or device (e.g.,circuitry, programmable hardware elements, ASICs, etc.), without userinput directly specifying or performing the action or operation. Thusthe term “automatically” is in contrast to an operation being manuallyperformed or specified by the user, where the user provides input todirectly perform the operation. An automatic procedure may be initiatedby input provided by the user, but the subsequent actions that areperformed “automatically” are not specified by the user, i.e., are notperformed “manually”, where the user specifies each action to perform.For example, a user filling out an electronic form by selecting eachfield and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typinginformation, selecting check boxes, radio selections, etc.) is fillingout the form manually, even though the computer system must update theform in response to the user actions. The form may be automaticallyfilled out by the computer system where the computer system (e.g.,software executing on the computer system) analyzes the fields of theform and fills in the form without any user input specifying the answersto the fields. As indicated above, the user may invoke the automaticfilling of the form, but is not involved in the actual filling of theform (e.g., the user is not manually specifying answers to fields butrather they are being automatically completed). The presentspecification provides various examples of operations beingautomatically performed in response to actions the user has taken.

FIG. 1—Wireless Communication System

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless cellular communicationsystem. It is noted that FIG. 1 represents one possibility among many,and that features of the present disclosure may be implemented in any ofvarious systems, as desired.

As shown, the exemplary wireless communication system includes acellular base station 102A, which communicates over a transmissionmedium with one or more wireless devices 106A, 106B, etc., as well as asmall form factor device, which as an example may be a wearable device107. Wireless devices 106A, 106B, and 107 may be user devices, which maybe referred to herein as “user equipment” (UE) or UE devices.

The base station 102 may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or cellsite, and may include hardware that enables wireless communication withthe UE devices 106A, 106B, and 107. The base station 102 may also beequipped to communicate with a network 100 (e.g., a core network of acellular service provider, a telecommunication network such as a publicswitched telephone network (PSTN), and/or the Internet, among variouspossibilities). Thus, the base station 102 may facilitate communicationbetween the UE devices 106 and 107 and/or between the UE devices 106/107and the network 100. In other implementations, base station 102 can beconfigured to provide communications over one or more other wirelesstechnologies, such as an access point supporting one or more WLANprotocols, such as 802.11 a, b, g, n, ac, ad, and/or ax, or LTE in anunlicensed band (LAA). The base station 102 (or similar networkinfrastructure) may also support other communication technologies, suchas text messaging, e.g., SMS (Short Message Service) and similar textmessaging technologies, such as iMessage™, Facebook Messenger™,WhatsApp™, etc.

The communication area (or coverage area) of the base station 102 may bereferred to as a “cell.” The base station 102 and the UEs 106/107 may beconfigured to communicate over the transmission medium using any ofvarious radio access technologies (RATs) or wireless communicationtechnologies, such as GSM, UMTS (WCDMA, TDS-CDMA), LTE, LTE-Advanced(LTE-A), 5G New Radio (NR), HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1×RTT, 1×EV-DO,HRPD, eHRPD), Wi-Fi, WiMAX etc. One example of LTE or LTE-Acommunications may be VoLTE (Voice over LTE).

Base station 102 and other similar base stations (not shown) operatingaccording to one or more cellular communication technologies may thus beprovided as a network of cells, which may provide continuous or nearlycontinuous overlapping service to UE devices 106A-N and 107 and similardevices over a wide geographic area via one or more cellularcommunication technologies.

Note that at least in some instances a UE device 106/107 may be capableof communicating using any of a plurality of wireless communicationtechnologies. For example, a UE device 106/107 might be configured tocommunicate using one or more of GSM, UMTS, CDMA2000, LTE, LTE-A, 5G NR,WLAN (Wi-Fi), Bluetooth, WiMAX, one or more global navigationalsatellite systems (GNSS, e.g., GPS or GLONASS), one and/or more mobiletelevision broadcasting standards (e.g., ATSC-M/H), SMS, etc. Othercombinations of wireless communication technologies (including more thantwo wireless communication technologies) are also possible. Likewise, insome instances a UE device 106/107 may be configured to communicateusing only a single wireless communication technology.

The UEs 106A and 106B are typically handheld devices such as smartphones or tablets, but may be any of various types of device withcommunication capability, such as cellular communications capability.The UE 106B may be configured to communicate with the UE device 107,which may be referred to as a small form factor device, a wearabledevice, or a wireless accessory device (AD) 107. The wireless AD 107 maybe any of various types of devices. Typically a wireless AD has asmaller form factor, and may have limited battery, output power and/orcommunications abilities relative to UEs 106. As one common example, theUE 106B may be a smart phone carried by a user, and the wireless AD 107may be a smart watch worn by that same user, or possibly a differentuser. Thus, as another example, in the operation described herein the UE106B may be a smart phone carried by a first user, and the wireless AD107 may be a smart watch worn by a second, different user. The UE 106Band the wireless AD 107 may communicate using any of various short-rangecommunication protocols, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc.

The wireless AD 107 may include communications capability, e.g.,cellular communication capability, and hence may be able to directlycommunicate with cellular base station 102. However, since the wirelessAD 107 is possibly limited in one or more of its communicationcapabilities, output power, and/or battery, wireless AD 107 may in someinstances selectively utilize the UE 106B as a proxy for communicationpurposes with the base station 102 and hence to the network 100. Inother words, the wireless AD 107 may selectively use the cellularcommunication capabilities of the UE 106B to conduct its cellularcommunications. The limitation on communication abilities of thewireless AD 107 can be permanent, e.g., due to limitations in outputpower or the radio access technologies (RATs) supported, or temporary,e.g., due to conditions such as current battery status, inability toaccess a network, or poor reception.

FIG. 2—Example System with a Wireless Accessory Device

FIG. 2 illustrates an example small form factor device 107 incommunication with base station 102. The small form factor device 107may be a wireless AD such as a smart watch or smart glasses. Thewireless AD 107 may have cellular communication capability and becapable of directly communicating with the base station 102 as shown.When the wireless AD 107 is configured to directly communicate with thebase station, the wearable device may be said to be in “autonomousmode.”

The wireless AD 107 may also be capable of communicating with anotherdevice (e.g., UE 106), referred to as a proxy device or intermediatedevice, using a short-range communications protocol, and may then usethe cellular functionality of this proxy device for communicatingcellular voice/data with the base station 102. In other words, thewireless AD 107 may provide voice/data packets intended for the basestation 102 over the short-range link to the UE 106, and the UE 106 mayuse its cellular functionality to transmit (or relay) this voice/data tothe base station on behalf of the wireless AD 107. Similarly, thevoice/data packets transmitted by the base station and intended for thewireless AD 107 may be received by the cellular functionality of the UE106 and then may be relayed over the short-range link to the wearabledevice. As noted above, the UE 106 may be a mobile phone, a tablet, orany other type of hand-held device, a media player, a computer, a laptopor virtually any type of wireless device. When the wireless AD 107 isconfigured to indirectly communicate with the base station using thecellular functionality of an intermediate or proxy device, the wirelessAD 107 may be said to be in “relay mode.”

Various embodiments herein are described with respect to the wireless AD107 selectively using either its own cellular functionality (autonomousmode) to communicate with a base station, or using the cellularfunctionality of the UE 106 (relay mode) for communications, e.g., forLTE or VoLTE. However, embodiments described herein may also be usedwith other radio access technologies (RATs), such as to enable thewireless AD 107 to selectively using either its own Wi-Fi functionality(autonomous mode) to communicate with a Wi-Fi access point, or use theWi-Fi functionality of the UE 106 (relay mode) for Wi-Fi communications.

The wireless AD 107 may include a processor that is configured toexecute program instructions stored in memory. The wireless AD 107 mayperform any of the method embodiments described herein by executing suchstored instructions. Alternatively, or in addition, the wireless AD 107may include a processing element, such as a programmable hardwareelement such as an FPGA (field-programmable gate array), integratedcircuit (IC), or other circuitry, that is configured to perform any ofthe method embodiments described herein, or any portion of any of themethod embodiments described herein.

The wireless AD 107 may include one or more antennas for communicatingusing two or more wireless communication protocols or radio accesstechnologies. In some embodiments, the UE device 106 might be configuredto communicate using a single shared radio. The shared radio may coupleto a single antenna, or may couple to multiple antennas (e.g., for MIMO)for performing wireless communications. Alternatively, the UE device 106may include two or more radios. For example, the UE 106 might include ashared radio for communicating using either of LTE (or LTE-Advanced) orBluetooth, and separate radios for communicating using each ofLTE-Advanced and Bluetooth. Other configurations are also possible.

The small form factor device (e.g., wireless AD) 107 may be any ofvarious types of devices that, in some embodiments, has a smaller formfactor relative to a conventional smart phone, and may have one or moreof limited communication capabilities, limited output power, or limitedbattery life relative to a conventional smart phone. As noted above, insome embodiments, the wireless AD 107 is a smart watch or other type ofwearable device. When the UE 106 is capable of being used by thewireless AD 107 as a proxy, the UE 106 may be referred to as a companiondevice to the wireless AD 107.

FIG. 3—Example Block Diagram of a UE Device

FIG. 3 illustrates one possible block diagram of a UE device 106 or awireless AD 107. As shown, the UE 106/107 may include a system on chip(SOC) 300, which may include portions for various purposes. For example,as shown, the SOC 300 may include processor(s) 302 which may executeprogram instructions for the UE 106/107, and display circuitry 304 whichmay perform graphics processing and provide display signals to thedisplay 360. The processor(s) 302 may also be coupled to memorymanagement unit (MMU) 340, which may be configured to receive addressesfrom the processor(s) 302 and translate those addresses to locations inmemory (e.g., memory 306, read-only memory (ROM) 350, Flash memory 310).The MMU 340 may be configured to perform memory protection and pagetable translation or setup. In some embodiments, the MMU 340 may beincluded as a portion of the processor(s) 302.

The UE device 106/107 may also include other circuits or devices, suchas the display circuitry 304, radio 330, connector I/F 320, and/ordisplay 360.

In the embodiment shown, ROM 350 may include a bootloader, which may beexecuted by the processor(s) 302 during bootup or initialization. Asalso shown, the SOC 300 may be coupled to various other circuits of theUE device 106/107. For example, the UE device 106/107 may includevarious types of memory, a connector interface 320 (e.g., for couplingto a computer system), the display 360, and wireless communicationcircuitry (e.g., for communication using LTE, 5G NR, CDMA2000,Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC, GPS, etc.).

The UE device 106/107 may include at least one antenna, and in someembodiments multiple antennas, for performing wireless communicationwith base stations and/or other devices. For example, the UE device106/107 may use antenna 335 to perform the wireless communication. Asnoted above, the UE 106/107 may in some embodiments be configured tocommunicate wirelessly using a plurality of wireless communicationstandards or radio access technologies (RATs).

As described herein, the UE device 106 and/or the wireless AD 107 mayinclude hardware and software components for implementing methodsaccording to embodiments of this disclosure. The processor 302 of the UEdevice 106/107 may be configured to implement part or all of the methodsdescribed herein, e.g., by executing program instructions stored on amemory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium).In other embodiments, processor 302 may be configured as a programmablehardware element, such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), or asan ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit).

FIG. 4—Exemplary Block Diagram of a Base Station

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a base station 102,according to some embodiments. It is noted that the base station of FIG.4 is merely one example of a possible base station. As shown, the basestation 102 may include processor(s) 404 which may execute programinstructions for the base station 102. The processor(s) 404 may also becoupled to memory management unit (MMU) 440, which may be configured toreceive addresses from the processor(s) 404 and translate thoseaddresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory 460 and read only memory(ROM) 450) or to other circuits or devices.

The base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. Thenetwork port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network andprovide a plurality of devices, such as UE devices 106, access to thetelephone network as described above in FIGS. 1 and 2.

The network port 470 (or an additional network port) may also oralternatively be configured to couple to a cellular network, e.g., acore network of a cellular service provider. The core network mayprovide mobility related services and/or other services to a pluralityof devices, such as UE devices 106. In some cases, the network port 470may couple to a telephone network via the core network, and/or the corenetwork may provide a telephone network (e.g., among other UE devicesserviced by the cellular service provider).

The base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434, and possiblymultiple antennas. The antenna(s) 434 may be configured to operate as awireless transceiver and may be further configured to communicate withUE devices 106 via radio 430. The antenna 434 communicates with theradio 430 via communication chain 432. Communication chain 432 may be areceive chain, a transmit chain or both. The radio 430 may be configuredto communicate via various wireless telecommunication standards,including, but not limited to, LTE, LTE-A, 5G NR, UMTS, CDMA2000, Wi-Fi,etc.

The base station 102 may be configured to communicate wirelessly usingmultiple wireless communication standards. In some instances, the basestation 102 may include multiple radios, which may enable the basestation 102 to communicate according to multiple wireless communicationtechnologies. For example, as one possibility, the base station 102 mayinclude an LTE radio for performing communication according to LTE aswell as a Wi-Fi radio for performing communication according to Wi-Fi.In such a case, the base station 102 may be capable of operating as bothan LTE base station and a Wi-Fi access point. As another possibility,the base station 102 may include a multi-mode radio which is capable ofperforming communications according to any of multiple wirelesscommunication technologies (e.g., LTE and Wi-Fi).

The base station 102 may include hardware and software components forimplementing or supporting implementation of features described herein.

Enhanced Text Messaging Mechanisms for an Accessory Device

Modern small form-factor wireless devices (such as wearable devices,accessory devices, smart watches and other types of wireless devices)may be equipped with both a short-range radio configured to pair andcommunicate with a companion device (e.g., a user equipment (UE) devicesuch as a smart phone) as well as a cellular radio to independentlycommunicate with a cellular base station. For example, modern accessorydevices may be configured to independently connect to a base station totransmit and receive voice, text, and data with a network, even when itis not paired to a companion device. In some embodiments, the accessorydevice may have an independent phone number from its companion device,which it may use to communicate with the network when it is acting as anindependent cellular device. Alternatively, when paired with thecompanion device, the accessory device may simply serve as a relay tocommunicate voice and data to a user, while the phone number of thecompanion device is used to communicate with the network.

As used herein, an accessory device (AD), such as the wireless AD 107illustrated in FIGS. 1-3, is taken to refer to any of a variety of smallform-factor devices, with or without an independent cellular radio andwith or without an associated companion device such as a UE 106.

During typical use, an AD may dynamically change its connectivity to itscompanion device as well as its location relative to its companiondevice. Embodiments herein present enhancements for textingapplications, such as short message service (SMS) applications or othertexting applications, that are operating through or on an accessorydevice, to address complications that may arise in these environments.

Emergency Texting in Roaming Environment

In some embodiments, an AD and/or a UE may operate in a roamingenvironment, where texting applications may not function properly and/orwhere additional charges may be incurred for utilizing textingapplications. For example, a typical short message service (SMS) messagemay be first sent to the home carrier's SMS Service Center (SMSC).However, if the device is roaming, the SMS may reach a different SMSC,possibly in a different country, which may lead to confusion and/ordenial of service for the user, as well as introduce unnecessary load onthe network. Additionally, in some embodiments, the AD and/or the UE maybe configured with a “save our ship”, or “SOS” feature wherein the usermay present input to the device to indicate that the user is indistress. In these embodiments, activation of the SOS feature may causethe device to periodically transmit a text message to an emergencycontact, such as an emergency agency (e.g., 911, 112 or the like) or toone or more custom emergency contacts configured on the device. However,if the device is in a roaming scenario, the emergency text may beunsuccessful or it may lead to unpredictable behavior. To address theseand other concerns, various texting enhancements may be implemented asdescribed below, according to various embodiments.

In some embodiments, the device may notify the user about thepossibility of additional roaming charges for automatically generatedSMS notifications to the emergency contacts when the SOS feature isused. In some embodiments, the device may prematurely fail the SMS whenin a roaming environment, to inform the user ahead of time that the SOSservice may not function properly in the roaming environment.

In other embodiments, upon activation, the SOS service may periodicallysend an emergency beacon to an emergency contact. In a roamingenvironment, this repeated transmission may incur a large expense on theuser through roaming data and/or service usage fees. Accordingly, inthese embodiments, the device may be configured to only send theemergency beacon once or another predetermined number of times (e.g., 3or 5 times), to avoid additional fees from continually retransmittingthe emergency beacon.

Multi-SIM Interruption Avoidance

In some embodiments, the AD may be a dual subscriber identity module(SIM) device configured with multiple SIMs such as a dual-SIMdual-standby (DSDS) device or another type of multi-SIM device. In theseembodiments, the multi-SIM device may be engaged in an emergency textingsession or another important texting session on a first SIM, and thedevice may receive an incoming call or text on a second SIM, potentiallyinterrupting the ongoing texting session. For example, the incoming callor text may interrupt the ongoing texting session at either the basebandor the user interface (e.g., by presenting a popup notification). Toavoid such interruptions, when the device initiates an emergency textingsession or another important or high priority texting session, thedevice may automatically put the second SIM out of service (00S) or intoa low power mode wherein the second SIM no longer receives incomingcalls.

Dynamic SIM Switching

In some embodiments, during an emergency texting session or anothertexting session, a particular outgoing text message may fail because ofa fatal error at the baseband, a routing protocol error, and/or anotherreason. If the device is a multi-SIM device, the device mayautomatically reattempt to send the text message on another SIM, eitherwith or without input from the user, according to various embodiments.

While reattempting to send the text message on another SIM may improvethe likelihood of a successful transmission, it may adversely affect thecontinuity of the texting session. For example, if the dual-SIM devicesuccessfully sends one or more text messages to establish a textingsession, switching SIMs mid-session may alter the number associated withthe outgoing session and interrupt the continuity of the session.Particularly in an emergency texting session or another important orhigh priority testing session, it may be undesirable to switch theoutgoing number (e.g., by switching SIMs) in the middle of the session.Accordingly, in these embodiments, the device may refrain from switchingSIMs if a message fails to send after one or more messages have beensuccessfully sent on a first SIM to establish the texting session, topreserve continuity of the session.

Preventing Pairing and/or Baseband Deactivation

In some embodiments, an AD may initiate an emergency texting session oranother type of high-priority texting session through a network whileoperating in stand-alone mode (e.g., while it is not paired to acompanion UE and is utilizing its own cellular radio for communicatingwith the network). In current implementations, if the AD moves intopairable proximity with its companion UE during the texting session, theAD may be configured to automatically power off its cellular basebandand pair with the companion UE in order to conserve battery power. Thisbehavior may be undesirable as it may interrupt the ongoing textingsession by switching numbers mid-session (e.g., from the phone numberassociated with the AD to the phone number associated with the companionUE), and may result in the AD missing one or more incoming text messagesand/or failing to send one or more outgoing text messages associatedwith the ongoing texting session. Accordingly, in some embodiments theAD may be configured to start a countdown timer (e.g., 30 minutes, 1hour, or another duration) upon initiation of an emergency or othertexting session, wherein the AD will not pair with its companion UE orpower down its cellular baseband if the companion UE becomes availableuntil after the timer expires. In some embodiments, each transmittedand/or received text message associated with the texting session maycause the AD to reset the countdown timer.

Activating Cellular Data During Texting Session

In some embodiments, a texting session such as T-911, SOS, or anothertype of texting application active on a device may utilizeNetwork-Initiated Location Queries (NILR) or another type or servicethat requires cellular data to be active on the device to functionproperly. For example, the location accuracy of a device may be greatlyimproved if the device has access to data, as the data channel may beable to facilitate access to the Hybridized Emergency Location (HELO)service or another data-based location service, in circumstances whereit is important for the network to determine the location of the devicein a short period of time. Additionally, a user of the device may havedeactivated cellular data on the device to reduce data fees or for otherreasons. In these embodiments, if the user attempts to initiate a highpriority texting session or another type of texting session thatrequires cellular data, the device may be configured to automaticallyturn on cellular data to ensure that the session operates successfully.For example, it may important that an emergency texting service such asT-911 is able to utilize NILR to identify the location of the device,and the user of the device may not have time or be in a proper state ofmind to reconfigure cellular data for the T-911 session. It may also beimportant that an SOS service also be able to utilize NILR to, forexample, provide the location of the device to a user's emergencycontacts. Accordingly, it may be desirable to automatically enablecellular data upon initiation of a T-911 session, to ensure that theemergency service providers are able to locate the device.

Alternatively, in some embodiments automatically activating cellulardata may be user configurable from the user interface of the device, ona per-application and/or a per-SIM basis.

FIG. 5—Flowchart for Texting Session Countdown Timer

FIG. 5 is a flowchart diagram illustrating a method for utilizing acountdown timer during a texting session by a wireless accessory device(AD), according to some embodiments. The scheme shown in FIG. 5 may beused in conjunction with any of the computer systems or devices shown inthe above Figures, such as the wireless AD 107 illustrated in FIGS. 1-3,among other devices. In various embodiments, some of the elements of thescheme shown may be performed concurrently, in a different order thanshown, or may be omitted. Additional elements may also be performed asdesired. As shown, the scheme may operate as follows.

At 502, the wireless AD establishes a texting session with a networkentity through the cellular network and using the cellular radio. Forexample, the wireless AD may act as a standalone cellular device toestablish the texting session with the network entity, without relayingthe texting session through a companion device such as a UE 106. Thetexting session may be any of variety of texting sessions, including anSOS session, an SMS session, or a high-priority texting session.

In some embodiments, the wireless AD may determine that the textingsession is a high priority texting session. In these embodiments, if thewireless AD is a dual-SIM device that is operating the texting sessionthrough a first SIM, the wireless AD may put the second SIM out ofservice during the high priority texting session, to prevent an incomingcall on the second SIM from interrupting the high priority textingsession.

In some embodiments, the wireless AD may determine that the textingsession requires access to cellular data to function properly. Forexample, as described in greater detail above, the texting session mayinvolve the transmission of location information of the wireless ADthrough a data-driven service. In these embodiments, the wireless AD mayautomatically enable cellular data for the texting session at least inpart in response to determining that the texting session requires accessto cellular data to function properly.

At 504, the wireless AD initiates a countdown timer in response toestablishing the texting session. The countdown timer duration may beselected based on a typical length of time utilized to complete thetexting session, such as 30 minutes, an hour, or another duration.

At 506, the wireless AD determines that a companion device to thewireless AD is reachable by the wireless AD. For example, the wirelessAD and/or the companion device may move into sufficient proximity of oneanother such that the wireless is able to connect to the companiondevice via BlueTooth™ or another short-range wireless communicationtechnology that is used to establish a connection between the wirelessAD and the companion device. The wireless AD may periodically monitorfor a signal from the companion device, and may determine that thecompanion device is reachable based on a signal strength of the signalfrom the companion device exceeding a threshold. The companion devicemay be a UE 106 such as a smart phone or tablet that is associated withthe wireless AD.

At 508, at least in part in response to determining that the companiondevice is reachable by the wireless device, the wireless AD refrainsfrom pairing with the companion device until the countdown timerexpires. For example, the wireless AD may be configured to automaticallypair with the companion device when the companion device is reachable.However, if the countdown timer has not yet expired, the wireless AD maydelay pairing with the companion device until after expiration of thecountdown timer, to preserve continuity of the texting session. Forexample, the wireless AD may establish the texting session using a firstphone number, while the companion device is configured to establishconnections with the network using a second, different phone number.Accordingly, if the wireless AD pairs with the companion device duringthe texting session, the texting session may be interrupted if thewireless AD is unable to seamlessly migrate the texting session from thefirst phone number to the second phone number. Advantageously, thecountdown timer may be utilized to grant the wireless AD sufficient timeto complete the texting session before pairing with the companiondevice, to prevent an interruption to the texting session. Particularlyif the texting session is a high priority texting session such as an SOSsession or another high priority session, it may improve the userexperience to prioritize continuity of the texting session over thebenefits of pairing with the companion device (e.g., preserving batterylife of the wireless AD and/or increasing the reliability of the networkconnection by using a larger and/or stronger radio of the companiondevice), by delaying the pairing process until the countdown timerexpires. For example, in some embodiments, initiating the countdowntimer and refraining from pairing with the companion device until thecountdown timer expires is performed further in response to determiningthat the texting session is a high priority texting session.

In some embodiments, further in response to determining that thecompanion device is reachable by the wireless device, the wireless ADmay refrain from powering down the cellular radio until the countdowntimer expires.

In some embodiments, the wireless AD may receive an incoming textmessage and/or may send an outgoing text message through the textingsession. In these embodiments, the wireless AD may restart the countdowntimer in response to determining that either an incoming text messagehas been received or an outgoing text message has been sent through thetexting session. In other words, the wireless AD may wait until nooutgoing or incoming text messages have been sent or received,respectively, for the duration of the countdown timer before pairingwith the companion device and/or powering down a cellular radio of thewireless AD.

In some embodiments, when the countdown timer expires, the wireless ADmay pair with the companion device and/or power down the cellular radioof the wireless AD at least in part in response to determining that thecountdown timer has expired and that the companion device is stillreachable by the wireless AD.

In some embodiments, the wireless AD is a dual-SIM device configuredwith a first subscriber identity module (SIM) and a second SIM. In theseembodiments, the wireless AD may determine that a first outgoing textmessage has failed to send through the texting session using the firstSIM. In response to determining that the first outgoing text message hasfailed to send, the wireless AD may determine whether the first outgoingtext message is the first attempted outgoing text message of the textingsession, or whether the first outgoing text message failed to send afterone or more other outgoing text messages have successfully been sentthrough the texting session using the first SIM. In these embodiments,if it is determined that the first outgoing text message is the firstattempted outgoing text message of the texting session, the wireless ADmay attempt to transmit the first outgoing text message using the secondSIM based at least in part on determining that the first outgoing textmessage is the first attempted outgoing text message of the textingsession. On the other hand, if it is determined that the first outgoingtext message failed to send after one or more other outgoing textmessages have successfully been sent through the texting session usingthe first SIM, the wireless AD may refrain from attempting to send thefirst outgoing text message using the second SIM based at least in parton determining that the first outgoing text message failed to send afterone or more other outgoing text messages have successfully been sentthrough the texting session using the first SIM.

As described above, one aspect of the present technology is thegathering and use of data available from specific and legitimate sourcesto, for example, improve the reliability of location informationassociated with users for emergency text messaging or other textmessaging applications. The present disclosure contemplates that in someinstances, this gathered data may include personal information data thatuniquely identifies or can be used to identify a specific person. Suchpersonal information data can include demographic data, location-baseddata, online identifiers, telephone numbers, email addresses, homeaddresses, data or records relating to a user's health or level offitness (e.g., vital signs measurements, medication information,exercise information), date of birth, or any other personal information.

The present disclosure recognizes that the use of such personalinformation data, in the present technology, can be used to the benefitof users. For example, the personal information data can be used to moreaccurately identify the location of the user in accordance with theirpreferences.

The present disclosure contemplates that those entities responsible forthe collection, analysis, disclosure, transfer, storage, or other use ofsuch personal information data will comply with well-established privacypolicies and/or privacy practices. In particular, such entities would beexpected to implement and consistently apply privacy practices that aregenerally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmentalrequirements for maintaining the privacy of users. Such informationregarding the use of personal data should be prominent and easilyaccessible by users, and should be updated as the collection and/or useof data changes. Personal information from users should be collected forlegitimate uses only. Further, such collection/sharing should occur onlyafter receiving the consent of the users or other legitimate basisspecified in applicable law. Additionally, such entities should considertaking any needed steps for safeguarding and securing access to suchpersonal information data and ensuring that others with access to thepersonal information data adhere to their privacy policies andprocedures. Further, such entities can subject themselves to evaluationby third parties to certify their adherence to widely accepted privacypolicies and practices. In addition, policies and practices should beadapted for the particular types of personal information data beingcollected and/or accessed and adapted to applicable laws and standards,including jurisdiction-specific considerations that may serve to imposea higher standard. For instance, in the US, collection of or access tocertain health data may be governed by federal and/or state laws, suchas the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA);whereas health data in other countries may be subject to otherregulations and policies and should be handled accordingly.

Despite the foregoing, the present disclosure also contemplatesembodiments in which users selectively block the use of, or access to,personal information data. That is, the present disclosure contemplatesthat hardware and/or software elements can be provided to prevent orblock access to such personal information data. For example, the presenttechnology can be configured to allow users to select to “opt in” or“opt out” of participation in the collection of personal informationdata during registration for services or anytime thereafter. In anotherexample, users can select not to provide location data for textingapplications. In addition to providing “opt in” and “opt out” options,the present disclosure contemplates providing notifications relating tothe access or use of personal information. For instance, a user may benotified upon downloading an app that their personal information datawill be accessed and then reminded again just before personalinformation data is accessed by the app.

Moreover, it is the intent of the present disclosure that personalinformation data should be managed and handled in a way to minimizerisks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use. Risk can beminimized by limiting the collection of data and deleting data once itis no longer needed. In addition, and when applicable, including incertain health related applications, data de-identification can be usedto protect a user's privacy. De-identification may be facilitated, whenappropriate, by removing identifiers, controlling the amount orspecificity of data stored (e.g., collecting location data at city levelrather than at an address level), controlling how data is stored (e.g.,aggregating data across users), and/or other methods such asdifferential privacy.

Therefore, although the present disclosure broadly covers use ofpersonal information data to implement one or more various disclosedembodiments, the present disclosure also contemplates that the variousembodiments can also be implemented without the need for accessing suchpersonal information data. That is, the various embodiments of thepresent technology are not rendered inoperable due to the lack of all ora portion of such personal information data. For example, content can beselected and delivered to users based on aggregated non-personalinformation data or a bare minimum amount of personal information, suchas the content being handled only on the user's device or othernon-personal information available to the content delivery services.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be realized in any of variousforms. For example, some embodiments may be realized as acomputer-implemented method, a computer-readable memory medium, or acomputer system. Other embodiments may be realized using one or morecustom-designed hardware devices such as ASICs. Still other embodimentsmay be realized using one or more programmable hardware elements such asFPGAs.

In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable memory mediummay be configured so that it stores program instructions and/or data,where the program instructions, if executed by a computer system, causethe computer system to perform a method, e.g., any of a methodembodiments described herein, or, any combination of the methodembodiments described herein, or, any subset of any of the methodembodiments described herein, or, any combination of such subsets.

In some embodiments, a device (e.g., a UE 106) may be configured toinclude a processor (or a set of processors) and a memory medium, wherethe memory medium stores program instructions, where the processor isconfigured to read and execute the program instructions from the memorymedium, where the program instructions are executable to implement amethod, e.g., any of the various method embodiments described herein(or, any combination of the method embodiments described herein, or, anysubset of any of the method embodiments described herein, or, anycombination of such subsets). The device may be realized in any ofvarious forms.

Although the embodiments above have been described in considerabledetail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent tothose skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated.It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace allsuch variations and modifications.

What is claimed is:
 1. A wireless accessory device (AD), comprising: acellular radio; and a processing element coupled to the radio, whereinthe wireless AD is configured to communicate with a cellular networkusing the processing element and the radio, wherein the wireless AD isconfigured to: establish a texting session with a network entity throughthe cellular network and using the cellular radio; initiate a countdowntimer in response to establishing the texting session; determine that acompanion device to the wireless AD is reachable by the wireless AD; andrefrain from pairing with the companion device in response todetermining that the companion device is reachable by the wireless ADuntil the countdown timer expires.
 2. The wireless AD of claim 1,wherein the wireless AD is further configured to: restart the countdowntimer in response to determining that either an incoming text messagehas been received or an outgoing text message has been sent through thetexting session.
 3. The wireless AD of claim 1, wherein the wireless ADis further configured to: refrain from powering down the cellular radioin response to determining that the companion device is reachable by thewireless AD until the countdown timer expires.
 4. The wireless AD ofclaim 1, wherein the wireless AD is further configured to: pair with thecompanion device and power down the cellular radio in response todetermining that the countdown timer has expired and that the companiondevice is still reachable by the wireless AD.
 5. The wireless AD ofclaim 1, wherein the wireless AD further comprises a first subscriberidentity module (SIM) and a second SIM, wherein the wireless AD isfurther configured to: determine that a first outgoing text message hasfailed to send through the texting session using the first SIM;determine that the first outgoing text message failed to send after oneor more second outgoing text messages have successfully been sentthrough the texting session using the first SIM; and refrain fromattempting to send the first outgoing text message using the second SIMbased at least in part on determining that the first outgoing textmessage failed to send after one or more second outgoing text messageshave successfully been sent through the texting session using the firstSIM.
 6. The wireless AD of claim 5, wherein the wireless AD is furtherconfigured to: determine that the first outgoing text message is thefirst attempted outgoing text message of the texting session; andattempt to transmit the first outgoing text message using the second SIMbased at least in part on determining that the first outgoing textmessage is the first attempted outgoing text message of the textingsession.
 7. The wireless AD of claim 1, wherein the wireless AD furthercomprises a first subscriber identity module (SIM) and a second SIM,wherein the texting session comprises a high priority texting session,and wherein the wireless AD is further configured to: put the second SIMout of service during the high priority texting session.
 8. The wirelessAD of claim 1, wherein the wireless AD is further configured to:determine that the texting session requires access to cellular data tofunction properly; and automatically enable cellular data for thetexting session at least in part in response to determining that thetexting session requires access to cellular data to function properly.9. A method for operating a wireless accessory device (AD), the methodcomprising: establishing a texting session with a network entity througha cellular network and using a cellular radio of the wireless AD;initiating a countdown timer in response to establishing the textingsession; determining that a companion device to the wireless AD isreachable by the wireless AD; and refraining from pairing with thecompanion device in response to determining that the companion device isreachable by the wireless AD until the countdown timer expires.
 10. Themethod of claim 9, the method further comprising: determining that thetexting session is a high priority texting session, wherein initiatingthe countdown timer and refraining from pairing with the companiondevice until the countdown timer expires is performed further inresponse to determining that the texting session is a high prioritytexting session.
 11. The method of claim 9, the method furthercomprising: restarting the countdown timer in response to determiningthat either an incoming text message has been received or an outgoingtext message has been sent through the texting session.
 12. The methodof claim 9, the method further comprising: refraining from powering downthe cellular radio in response to determining that the companion deviceis reachable by the wireless AD until the countdown timer expires. 13.The method of claim 9, the method further comprising: pairing with thecompanion device and powering down the cellular radio in response todetermining that the countdown timer has expired and that the companiondevice is still reachable by the wireless AD.
 14. The method of claim 9,wherein the wireless AD comprises a first subscriber identity module(SIM) and a second SIM, wherein the texting session comprises a highpriority texting session, and wherein the method further comprises:putting the second SIM out-of-service until the countdown timer expires.15. A non-transitory memory medium comprising program instructions that,when executed by a processor, cause a wireless accessory device (AD) to:establish a texting session with a network entity through a cellularnetwork and using a cellular radio of the wireless AD; initiate acountdown timer in response to establishing the texting session;determine that a companion device to the wireless AD is reachable by thewireless AD; and refrain from pairing with the companion device inresponse to determining that the companion device is reachable by thewireless AD until the countdown timer expires.
 16. The non-transitorymemory medium of claim 15, wherein the program instructions are furtherexecutable by the processor to cause the wireless AD to: restart thecountdown timer in response to determining that either an incoming textmessage has been received or an outgoing text message has been sentthrough the texting session.
 17. The non-transitory memory medium ofclaim 15, wherein the program instructions are further executable by theprocessor to cause the wireless AD to: refrain from powering down thecellular radio in response to determining that the companion device isreachable by the wireless AD until the countdown timer expires.
 18. Thenon-transitory memory medium of claim 15, wherein the programinstructions are further executable by the processor to cause thewireless AD to: pair with the companion device and power down thecellular radio in response to determining that the countdown timer hasexpired and that the companion device is still reachable by the wirelessAD.
 19. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 15, wherein theprogram instructions are further executable by the processor to causethe wireless AD to: determine that a first outgoing text message hasfailed to send through the texting session using a first subscriberidentity module (SIM) of the wireless AD; determine that the firstoutgoing text message is the first attempted outgoing text message ofthe texting session; and attempt to transmit the first outgoing textmessage using a second SIM of the wireless AD based at least in part ondetermining that the first outgoing text message is the first attemptedoutgoing text message of the texting session.
 20. The non-transitorymemory medium of claim 15, wherein the program instructions are furtherexecutable by the processor to cause the wireless AD to: determine thata first outgoing text message has failed to send through the textingsession using a first subscriber identity module (SIM) of the wirelessAD; determine that the first outgoing text message failed to send afterone or more second outgoing text messages have successfully been sentthrough the texting session using the first SIM; and refrain fromattempting to send the first outgoing text message using a second SIM ofthe wireless AD based at least in part on determining that the firstoutgoing text message failed to send after one or more second outgoingtext messages have successfully been sent through the texting sessionusing the first SIM.